A window treatment may be mounted in front of one or more windows, for example to prevent sunlight from entering a space and/or to provide privacy. Window treatments may include, for example, roller shades, roman shades, venetian blinds, or draperies. A roller shade typically includes a flexible shade fabric wound onto an elongated roller tube. Such a roller shade may include a weighted hembar located at a lower end of the shade fabric. The hembar may cause the shade fabric to hang in front of one or more windows that the roller shade is mounted in front of.
A window treatment may be motorized. For example, a motorized roller shade may include a motor drive unit that is coupled to the roller tube to provide for tube rotation. When operated, the motor drive unit may cause the roller tube to rotate, such that the lower end of the shade fabric is raised or lowered, for example along a vertical direction. In a typical motorized roller shade, the motor drive unit and the roller tube may be retained within a housing that is mounted in front of one or more windows, for example attached to a window frame.
The motor drive unit of a motorized window treatment (e.g., a roller shade) may powered, for example, by an alternating current (AC) source, a direct current (DC) source, by one or more batteries, or any combination thereof.
In an example of a known battery-powered roller shade, the batteries may be held in a battery holder, such as a battery compartment, that is discrete from the housing of the roller shade. Such a discrete battery compartment may be mounted separately from the housing of the roller shade. However, such a configuration is not ideal because a discrete battery compartment may diminish the aesthetics of a roller shade.
In other examples of known battery-powered roller shades, one or more batteries may be held within the roller tube, for example along with the motor drive unit. However, such configurations are not ideal because gaining access to the batteries, for example to change them, may be difficult. For example, in one such configuration, the entire housing of the roller shade must be removed from its mounted position in order to gain access to the batteries, which may be undesirably laborious. In another example of such a configuration, the shade fabric may need to be fully and manually extended (e.g., beyond a desired lowered position) in order to gain access to the batteries, which may be undesirable.